Don’t we need to be “dead” to the law if we are really going to live for God?

The first question to ask about this verse is: Who is to be dead? A quick reading of this passage leads some to think that it is the law of God that should die. But is the apostle Paul really saying we should toss the Ten Commandments aside? It is not the law that needs to die, but we ourselves who need to die. Of course, he’s not speaking of a physical death, but a spiritual death.

The way Paul “died” was “through the law.” He explains, “By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). When Paul “died,” he turned to Jesus. “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3).

When sin was alive in Paul’s life and he came to the law, it pointed out his need. Paul repented and died to his selfishness. Through faith in Christ, he could now live for God. The condemnation of the law was gone; it could no longer point out the sin in his life that was taken away by Jesus’ blood.

The clearest explanation of this process is found in Romans 6: “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. … For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:6–8, 10, 11).

Key Bible Texts

For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. (Galatians 2:19 KJV)